Why Must This Happen
by meganflutefire12
Summary: Amelia, the little sister of the legendary skybax rider, Croco Hallaway, must carry on her brother's legacy after he dies from a terrible accident. Note: This is a fanfic of a fanfic. Please read The Legend of Croco Hallaway for background information.
1. Chapter 1

"Why must this happen," Amelia said

"You don't deserve this, no one deserves this" she said sobbing, head in hands.

"Croco, my brother, why must you leave us so soon"

"You know that we all must go home eventually" Croco said.

He lay there on the bed, dying, dying from a long, hard fall from his skybox. He had been part of a rescue mission to save many. He had sacrificed himself to save his fellow skybax riders.. A T-Rex had come out of nowhere and surprised the skybax riders who had thought the attack was over. Croco had been the only one in the sky when it came, he managed to distract it for a while but the rex knocked him out of the sky. It wasn't his skybax that had been hit, but one lucky shot, Croco was hit. They fell from the sky, their domain.

"It wasn't planned for you to go this way" Amelia said.

Everyone had gathered around that ever knew him. They managed to get him to Canyon City and sent messages to those close to him.

"You, my sister, must carry on , carry on my legacy." He said.

"Please, Croco, please don't leave me again"

"I will see you soon my sister." He said. Those would be his last words.

Amelia kneeled by his bed and cried for what seemed years. Romana put her hand on Amelia's shoulder. Amelia heard somewhere in the distance, a woman telling the others to leave them for a moment.

"Amelia, come, we must let them bury him."

She led them to Amelia's room. They stayed there, Romana watching Amelia cry. When they had taken the body, Oonu came in to talk to Amelia.

"Amelia, I've been informed that you have finished your studies and are ready to be assigned a habitat; everyone has agreed that this is where you belong. You begin training tomorrow and will be assigned you brother's skybax. I hope you fulfill his final wish to carry on his legacy. You Amelia are his only relative; someone must carry his memory on." With that he left with Romana. They left her to be alone a while with her thoughts and memories.

At dawn, Amelia was in her uniform ready for training with her classmates. Oono treated her the same has the others. They were all assigned a skybax, Amelia assigned her brother's. A crowd had gathered to watch the great skybax rider's little sister, to see if she'd carry him on.

Oonu gave the command for everyone to take their first flight. Everyone watched eagerly for Amelia to take her first flight.

"Don't be afraid. This is the first step to many others. You mustn't be afraid." Croco said in her mind.

"Amelia," Oonu said.

"Here is a saddle, a very special one. You have the honor of not only riding your brother's skybax, but you use his saddle." He handed her the saddle and had her step up to Speedwing, for she must take that first step.

She took a deep breathe, threw on the saddle, and jumped onto Speedwing. In just seconds, she was flying with him next to the cliffs, people watching in awe as she soared through the sky. You could almost see Croco flying next to her. You couldn't help but smile, a step she was afraid to take, she had conquered.


	2. Chapter 2

"Amelia! Wake up, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, just a dream" Amelia said while rolling out of bed.

"Are you sure?" asked a skeptical Kaala.

"Yea, it was just a dream about losing my brother."

"Girls, what's going on? Who screamed?" asked Mira as she came running into the room.

"Amelia just had a bad dream" Kaala told her mother.

"Well you two best hurry up; we're almost ready to leave for Waterfall City"

Mira walked outside to assist her husband, Brock, with the final preparations for the trip.

"But it's really strange," Amelia said "I haven't seen my brother in years and he was dressed and acted as if he was here."

"We should tell mom and dad, maybe they can help" said Kaala.

"Let's go, Nobby's ready to go" yelled Brock.

Nobella, or Nobby as she's usually called, was the family's triceratops. Amelia had arrived a week earlier. Her plane had crashed into the sea and dolphins had taken her to the shore. Kaala and Riojay, a deinonychus, had found her and taken her home. After a week of rest, Amelia was ready to make the journey to Waterfall City so she could register and begin her training.

"So what was your dream about?" Mira asked Amelia.

"Oh, um, it was about my brother who disappeared a few years ago." She responded. "I dreamed that he was here, like he was from here or had lived here for a while, and that he died from a fall off of his skybax."

"What was your brother's name?" asked a curious Brock.

"His name was Joseph, most people call him Croco though" Amelia said.

Everyone else turned pale when she mentioned his name.

"Your brother is Croco Hallaway?" Brock said.

"Yea, that's him, why?" asked a confused Amelia.

"We found someone named Croco Hallaway washed up on the same beach we found you on." Brock said "He's been living here for six years and became a skybax rider two years ago."

"Wait, he's here, my missing brother is here?"

"Yes, he's here Amelia."

Amelia smiled at that, she just couldn't believe her brother was here.

After a few days, they made it to Waterfall City. Amelia looked in awe at all the waterfalls, and all the sites.

"Wow, this place sure is beautiful." Amelia said.

"It sure is." said Mira "That's where you'll register" she said as she pointed at a large building that must have been the library.

They all walked inside and found the librarian.

"Hello there, you must be Amelia Hallaway, the new dolphinback." He said "Welcome to Waterfall City, this way to the registry and we can get you to the Haven"

Amelia walked over to the registry; the only name she recognized was her brother's.

"You wouldn't happen to be related to Croco would you?" asked the librarian.

"He's my brother" was all she said.

"You must be excited then to become a skybax rider"

"Actually no." said Amelia "I've kind of been the family oddball because of my fear of heights."

Everyone seemed surprised at this. Croco was one of the best skybax riders Dinotopia had ever had. How could his little sister possibly be scared of heights?

"Now what were you saying about the Haven?" Amelia asked to change the subject.

"It's where you will be paired with a dinosaur and you will study our language and many other things." said the librarian. "Time to say your goodbyes."

The goodbyes were sad, Amelia had become close to these people. But they all knew they had to part ways. There were many hugs and goodbyes, but they all left to go back to Neopolis, leaving Amelia in Waterfall City to start her future.


	3. Chapter 3

Life at the base in Georgia had been like any life in a normal neighborhood, with more discipline and expectations, but very similar to what is called a normal life. Every kid of an airman took flying lessons, even if father wasn't an airman; it was still tradition for the Hallaway family to fly. Even before the family came to America, we flew. I guess you could say it's in our blood.

I had always been the family oddball. I was the only granddaughter first of all. This meant that not only did I get southern belle lessons from every woman in the family, but I was forced to learn how to defend myself from my brothers and cousins. I was given the choice to either become a housewife, forever doomed to stay in the house and do all I was bid to do, or I could pretend I didn't have a vagina or boobs and join the ranks of boys ready to fly. I of course chose the latter and was treated as one of the boys.

I was also a quiet kid when I was young. At one point, I'd even refuse to speak when questioned by a teacher. I grew out of it when I reached high school, but once and quiet kid, always a quiet kid. I tried to open up to people only to be shoved back inside myself and told to stay in my place. That's one of the disadvantages of living on base, no one takes change well. The real problem didn't appear until I turned sixteen and was allowed to start flying lessons. My brothers had already run off to live their lives, leaving me alone to fight myself out of here.

The real problem was that I had a fear of heights, no one knew where it had come from, it surely wasn't expected of a daughter in a long line of pilots. I was constantly ridiculed for my fear, and it only got worse when the panic attacks started. The flying lessons may have ended, but the ridicule never did. You may ask how I flew myself here to Dinotopia when I didn't finish my lessons, my answer being that I apparently still had a natural talent for learning on the job, and for sneaking around the hangar.

I graduated high school and was prepared to leave hours after. Most high school seniors spend the night before graduation celebrating the accomplishment, I spent it writing my goodbyes and packing what I needed to fly wherever I ended up. The event that triggered my need to leave immediately was the news of my brothers' disappearance over the ocean and no wreckage, nor bodies, found. This gave me one last surge of adrenaline to give me the final push to do something and get out. Croco especially protected me from whoever dared to hurt me, including my own brothers. I never paid him back and the only way to do it now was to do whatever it took to find him.

All of this was running through my head while I waited in the library to meet my host until I could continue on to Treetown. I did make an attempt to read, more like decipher, the books, only to look up and see a Triceratops laughing at me.

"Oh, sorry about that, you must be Amelia judging from your lack of ability to read a child's book. I'm Nan by the way, and I'll be your host while you live here"

"Yep, that's me. You wouldn't happen to have a key to decipher this would you? I do enjoy reading, something that actually made me standout and shine bright through the great shadows of my brothers."

"We'll find you a key once you get settled in; we live a few houses down the road." She replied quieter than before. You could almost see a hint of sympathy on her face.

"But first we must eat and have a grand tour of the city. You'll love the place", more boisterously put than before, she must have realized her face gave away what she was obviously thinking.

Nan hurried me out of the peacefulness of the library and into the chaos of the city. We passed so many people in clothing that resembled that worn at a Renaissance fair. I contemplated being a polite young lady and starting a conversation, but the large birds I soon found out were skybax had me staring in amazement at the sky.

"Come Amelia, people are staring. The skybax are amazing aren't they? It takes a special person to fly with them, any ordinary person could ride on them, but there seems to be a few who were born to fly. Maybe you'll be up there one day."

"Oh I doubt that," I scoffed, "I may come from a long line of pilots, but my fear of heights has overwhelmed me too many times."

"There are plenty of other important habitats for you even if you don't get to fly. I could definitely see you raising a baby dinosaur as your saurian partner."

We stood there for a few more moments marveling at the beauty of the skybax and their riders until they made an abrupt landing. There were four of them, three guys and a girl.

"That man there in front is Oono, he teaches all the new recruits in Canyon City. On his right are David and Ramona, David and his brother and father also arrived here by plane crash, Ramona, as I'm sure Kaala has told you is the daughter of one of the very best skybax riders to ever live. And lastly on his left is Croco Hallaway who also happens to be a dolphinback, the most recent besides you in fact."

I hardly heard her over my mind trying to comprehend that that guy, that man standing there just yards away was my brother. He looked older and more mature than he had when he left. It's almost as if the death of his brother and best friend and crashing his plane in the ocean, almost drowning, and washing up on an island full of dinosaurs made him grow up. This was the brother I missed, the one who swore to protect me, the one who had to leave everyone and everything he knew behind to finally stop being a boy and become a man.

Nan must have seen something on my face that showed I'd been staring longer than intended at Croco.

"I know he's attractive and all and anything could happen, but your chances of getting him are very slim."

I couldn't help but bust out laughing at that one. I didn't notice the stares nor the skybax riders walking in our direction until Nan nudged me. I looked up and realized that I was getting an odd look from my long lost brother and his friends.

"You know, you look a lot like my sister, but" he started with a sarcastic hint to his voice. He never got to finish because of his sister hugging him so tightly.


End file.
